You're not going to pay a lot for this auction!

I like eBay. I've actually been using it since its original URL was something like ebay.surf.net. Anyone else remember that? I don't use it that often, but when I do, I like to get a good deal. One way to do this is use auction sniping software. The basic idea is to put your only bid in the last 15 seconds of an auction, thus removing anyone's chance of upping the bid. A lot of times, people only increment the bid $1 or two to see how high it'll go. If you can get in before anyone else has a chance to respond, you can swoop in and pick up stuff really cheaply.

My favorite sniper is still the oldest: jBidWatcher. It's a Java app so that means it runs on prett much every OS (and it also means it's really SLOW! LOL!). There's even an app bundle for OSX so it looks and runs just like a native app. jBW can sync with your MyEbay list and watch all of your auctions. My favorite feature, and one I haven't seen in any of the other free watchers (did I mention all of this functionality is FREE?!) is the multi-snipe. To multi-snipe, you select a bunch of auctions in your watch window, right-click and choose "snipe". The software sees you selected multiple items, so it enables the multi-snipe. You put in the maximum bid you want to pay for these items, and the jBW does its thing. It sits there and waits. Patiently. When the first of these auctions is close to the end, it snipes! Ahhh! Scary! If your snipe bid was successful and you won, jBW forgets about the other items in the multi-snipe. If you lost, it'll wait for the next auction to come to and end and try again.

I've been looking to get a second processor for my desktop, and they've been running about $42 before shipping. The other day before leaving for work, I started jBW and selected 4 auctions for the processor. I put my max bid at $45 (some were going as high as $60-70) and left. Later in the day, I got an e-mail that I'd won the auction at $34! Not too shabby!

This really is a great piece of software, and if you buy a lot on eBay, you owe it to yourself and your wallet to just try it a few times.